MSNBC apologized to Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus and announced Thursday that it canned a social media worker who angered conservatives for tweeting that they hated biracial families.

On Wednesday night, someone tweeted this from MSNBC's main account:

The tweet referred back to a controversy early last year, when conservatives and racists were angered by a Cheerios commercial featuring a biracial family and their daughter—a commercial most viewers just found adorable.

This time around, conservatives were tweaked by MSNBC's trolling—so much so that they launched their own hashtag meme to prove their racially enlightened bonafides, #MyBiracialRightwingFamily.

MSNBC president Phil Griffin came back to Priebus, hat in hand, with this public statement:

The tweet last night was outrageous and unacceptable. We immediately acknowledged that it was offensive and wrong, apologized, and deleted it. We have dismissed the person responsible for the tweet.

I personally apologize to Mr. Priebus and to everyone offended. At MSNBC we believe in passionate, strong debate about the issues and we invite voices from all sides to participate. That will never change.